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20th post: Book Review, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

31 Jan 2018 The weather this afternoon felt good that I could actually spend the whole of it by sitting at the laundry room, reading the rest of the book while enjoying the gently brush of the wind. Finally, I made it, my first finished-read book at the end of January 2018. Truthfully saying when I write this review, I’m a noob myself. I only simply enjoy the story; on how the events naturally flow on their own routes and probably ended-up intertwined and end in an unusual way. I simply bought the book because it was Murakami and the other ulter motive of my curiosity of Murakami’s memoir. It was circa Aug 2017 as a late birthday present for myself. I definitely can’t compare this book to the others I have ever read (Kafka on The Shore, Norwegian Wood, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and the others I haven’t finished) since it’s a mere nonfiction. The whole book mostly about himself tied the connection of being both a productive runner and writer. The life lessons are not squared only the struggles of being a writer or a runner; it’s also general to things you want to accomplish. Of course I feel like I really have to go for a run when I read this. But the urge feeling doesn’t only stick to a run, it’s also things I left behind years ago: my life motivation. This book sure has highly-motivated me to do those things I should do in my early 20s. Fav quotation: “Of course it was painful, and there were times when emotionally, I just wanted to chuck it all. But pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren’t involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive–or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself.” ーpg 171, ln 12. 3.5/5 since probably I have a kind of allergic feeling to memoir. Silly reason, I know. Kinda subjective that I forced myself to read this since it was Murakami but I didn’t regret it. Recommended for those who want to feel highly motivated on doing things especially sports. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2268053926